Butchering is not my favorite part of poultry raising. This is not because I really care about death (I raise them to eat them). It is more a matter of it is messy and tedious.
We had never raised or butchered water birds before. It is kind of cold so we beheaded the geese and let them bleed out upside down on the fence. Then we brought them inside for plucking and cleaning (not the best idea but it is 20 degrees outside). We did them one at a time. Each took about an hour start to finish and it is so tedious we wound up only doing the two voracious geese today. We will probably do turkeys next week and then we shall see about the ducks (I moved them to the chicken coop...kids lost one in the move and are still outside looking for it. It is one of my Khaki Campbells, which are the egg layers! If I only winter over two it would be those two. My stinkers better find her!)My hubby put what he calls the "bird hook" in the middle of a door frame and we hung the bird upside down by its feet over a tote for plucking. I first dunked it in a stock pot of hot water to help loosen the feathers.
After plucking we used a torch to singe off the last of that downy under fluff and a few stray feathers (set off our smoke alarms...which is exciting because I bashed a couple off the ceiling in a rage while making toast and I was not sure we had any working ones left.)
Hi.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog when i was doing some research on raising chickens/waterfowl in arctic conditions(am living in Rovaniemi Finland so we get conditions where it has gone down to -63 F but usually goes down to -40 c/f but does not have the wind chill factor).
Love the blog and the info is really helpful for me to figure out what i need to do to set up my own coop.
Keep on posting so i have something to read once in a while!
Regards
Halldor Kristofer in Rovaniemi
Wow...I am flattered you are getting ideas Halldor!! My set-up is pretty hardcore because I want efficiency. If you don't have the wind to contend with it will be much easier to get some passive heat in your coop to keep it a little warmer. If you come up with any tips for waterfowl in winter please do share.
ReplyDeleteI am Icelandic, living in a very windy climate and without trees i know how hard it can make any project like this.
ReplyDeleteMy setup will be an old "farm hand" room in one of my "outbuildings" so it is isolated already with electricity. That alone should make my project easier. My main idea is chickens for now, and possibly some game birds/animals(i have 2 of those rooms and an unheated garage in that same building that i am considering converting entirely into use for animals).
Also have some land that i just purchased with the house(it's more or less all forest) and will possibly fence that off to be able to let some animals roam it(mainly thinking goats or wild boar).
The only issue i see with waterfowl in winter is the fact that they migrate from the colder climates so may possibly not be that adaptable to winter climates(and especially not extreme colds/climates), but i may want to try anyway. It all depends on what i can get my hands on live stock wise here in Finland.
Oooo...I wish I had that much property to play with. I am jealous. The one thing I have always coveted and just don't have the room to try is Icelandic Sheep. They are incredibly frugal eaters. Grain will make them obese. They have mohair quality wool, gourmet quality meat and they make enough milk to be dairy producers. They sound like the perfect farm animal. If you have the fencing and space that is what I would try. And since you have electricity...chickens will lay eggs based on light. Cold has nothing to do with it. I don't give mine any extra light because the eggs freeze and crack before I can get them anyway. If you have less wind, electricity, and a slightly warmer shelter you can get eggs all winter long. Good luck and thanks for letting me know what you are up to! I really enjoy it!!!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have some Icelandic sheep here, miss the Icelandic Lamb meat so much! And yes they are very good at finding something to eat and seem to thrive in just about anything!
ReplyDeleteThe idea is to have chicken coop heated(hence putting it up in the isolated room with a heater source). I might use the second room for 2-4 sheep and have the hay in the unheated garage... But not really gone that far in my plans.
Been looking at a wild boar "farm" that is close to the girlfriends home town(some 6-7 hour drive south from here) and might even go that route and get me a couple of piglets to raise up to slaughter size, but that will require some robust fencing and takes a while to get them to proper size.
I go through more ideas than i can ever hope to make into reality...but as soon as the snow is gone and spring is here i will start with at least the beginning(the chicken coop and herb/food gardens) and go from there.